Baby Shower/Maternity Pics

Daisy put together a lovely baby shower for Goldie yesterday evening. (My mom nicely agreed to let us have it at Polk's End--as it was a good middle spot for us up in Logan and others down south of Ogden.)

There were probably 30 women (and girls :)) all there to support her. All just family. What a lucky thing to have so many womenfolk who love you! (I didn't capture all of them. By the time I thought to grab these, it was nearly over and some had had to leave. Others were in the kitchen getting more food.)

Penny made her pasta salad, Kenya brought crackers and dip, several family members reached out to Daisy--offering to help--and brought fruit and veggies and mini eclairs. Daisy made darling sugar cookies from the old Allred recipe (which is the best). And I made pumpkin squares and chocolate pudding cake. (Actually, Goldie came over in the day and helped ... by making the pumpkin cake herself. But nobody ought to know she had to make food for her own shower.) They used fabric markers to draw cute bibs for her. (She will never be short on bibs! And why didn't I take pictures of them! They were so cute!) They filled out advice cards (and shared their advice). And they gave her a million presents.

(And as a bonus I will share this picture Daisy took of my mom's deck. If you look closely at the tree you will see a wild turkey eating from the bird feeder. I am quite sure that turkey was not the intended recipient of the bird seed! It really is the strangest thing. I never saw a wild turkey in my life growing up in that house. But now you can't look outside without seeing them!)

Goldie is down to only about two weeks away from her due date. I have to admit that it really still doesn't seem real to me. I can't imagine grandkids! But I suppose I won't have to imagine much longer as he will be a reality!

She wanted some maternity pics. I love the farm because we didn't have to plan some big shoot or time to do it. We just ... wandered outside after Sunday dinner last week and ... wahlah: maternity pictures!

And no, for those of you wondering. He does not have a name yet. We've harassed them about it every Sunday for months with no success. But I suppose I'm not one to talk. We didn't officially decide on Goldie's name until she was practically a week old!

We didn't creatively plan on incorporating chickens. They just ... hoped we had some food for them. 

I've never done maternity pictures before and had no actual idea what they were supposed to be. But we managed well enough!

It's strange to think of this little blog/journal space--that has been filled with so many of my own pregnancies and newborns--shifting into photos of the next generation. I wonder just how long this blog will last (how long I will last?) and how many phases of my family's life I will continue to record! (Note to my kids: it's probably a pretty good time to start recording your own little family stories as well!)

What Excellent ...

boiled potatoes older children!

Abe and Kenya and Daisy all came up last weekend. 

They helped haul straw at Uncle Lynn's:

 And then they took all the kids up to Bear Lake for several hours! (I was so glad the kids got to do something fun for one of their very last days of summer vacation. And grateful to their older siblings for facilitating it.) 

Mike and I didn't have a soul around this house. On a Saturday! Imagine that! We did lazily take a nap together. But we also got the straw unloaded (just before it rained!), and chased our new calf back into our front pasture after it got out, and Mike hung my windchimes, and we picked up pupusas for everyone to come home to.

A good day all around.

(Pictures from the lake compliments of Daisy.)